Observations on language, literature, and other interesting phenomena

Menu

And the winner goes to…

Although my two year blogiversary is coming up, I still feel like a total newbie. I still have much to learn about blogging, about managing my own writing, and about building an online community of support. Writing can be a lonely business, and it takes time. There needs to be a commitment to writing that brings us away from other things in our life that we may also enjoy: friends, family, hobbies…

Imagine my delight, then, when M.Howalt over at Muse X-ings left me a comment to say that I had been given an ‘Irresistibly Sweet Blogger Award’. I’d seen them around in different incarnations. I’ll make the admission right now that I don’t know if there is any specific criteria behind the various awards, so I decided to make my own. But first, I want to thank M.Howalt sincerely for the accolade, and also for her support and comments. She’s a great writer, too, so go check her out!

The rules for this award are to reveal seven random facts about myself, and to pass the award on to a number of other bloggers. I chose to match the number of bloggers to the number of facts that I reveal. I like the symmetry, which is perhaps a bit peculiar, but I’ve come to embrace my little quirks. And here are seven of them:

1. I love cars and am very picky about what I drive. I despise SUVs and will only drive small, manual-transmission cars unless I am physically unable to do so. My current car is a Chevy Cobalt in cobalt blue. She’s clearly got the blues, and so I named her Lucille after B.B. King’s guitar.

2. I stopped eating red meat 21 years ago, and then cut out the rest of the land animals a few years later. I occasionally eat fish, but try to limit it. I could never go vegan because I don’t want to live a life without cheese or yogurt.

3. My favorite sport is college football and I’m a rabid fan of my alma mater’s team, the University of Florida Gators. Go Gators! I was at UF when Emmitt Smith was playing and I once nearly ran him over when he and some other players suddenly crossed the street in front of me. I figure he owes me about 10% of his earnings for saving his knees with my quick reflexes.

4. My second favorite sport is ice hockey and I won’t have any of you say a bad word about the NY Rangers (even though Sean Avery is a pain in the ass) or the Pittsburgh Penguins (even though Sidney Crosby is a diva).

5. The strawberry cheesecake pictured in the award above would actually not tempt me. Maybe just the strawberries. I’m moderately lactose-intolerant; some dairy is fine, but an entire slice of cheesecake would kill me. Mostly, however, I really don’t have a sweet tooth. I could eat pasta and bread until the cows come home, but a few bites of cake or one chocolate chip cookie satisfies me just fine.

6. I’ve never had a broken bone, surgery, stitches, a hospital stay, or heartburn. I’m also now afraid that I’ve just jinxed myself so I’m going to knock on wood now.

7. Some days, I desperately miss living in Europe, and other days, I’m so glad to have left. Most days, I exist somewhere in the middle, where I enjoy bagels, (relatively) cheap gas, and opportunities in America, but miss delicious espresso, funky shoes, and calmer pace of life in Europe.

And now onto the next part of the award: the next seven recipients. When I saw the title of the award, I thought of the women bloggers whose writing I’ve been enjoying. It might be stereotypical, but in my experience, men don’t really want to be ‘irresistibly sweet’ – they just want to be ‘irresistible.’ There are definitely some great blogs in circulation on my computer written by men, but for some reason, this award doesn’t seem suited to them. Still, I’d like to give a quick shout-out to Clay Morgan at educlaytion.com for being such an energetic community builder, teacher, and writer. Also, I’d like to recognize my friend Jeff Sypeck who writes Quid Plura?, for his unfailing encouragement, advice, and support.

So after some thought, I decided to go with my gut instinct and use this opportunity to express my appreciation for the work regularly done by seven talented and intelligent women. And here they are (in alphabetical order, of course!):

A.Hab’s View: A.Hab. is busting her ass to finish her dissertation this summer, and she still pushes herself to post every day. And she doesn’t just phone it in. Without fail, she delivers thoughtful, well-written entries on so many topics. She seems to pour all of herself into everything she does, and so you can feel the care behind each word, each crafted sentence.

Herding Cats in Hammond River: This isn’t Wendy’s first blogger award and I’m sure it won’t be the last, as all of them are well-deserved. She’s a wonderful writer, clearly a lover of language and books, and best of all – she runs a book store. That’s one of my dream jobs, and I still fantasize about opening my own shop if or when I decide I’m done with the teaching gig.

How Can I Complain: Sprinkles won me over when I realized that we were both teachers who were finally trying to pursue our dream of writing. I found her site barely post or two after she started it, and knew I wanted to keep reading. I always look forward to the next post. She tells a wonderful story, she’s funny, and she’s not afraid to make herself vulnerable.

Keenie Beanie: Anyone willing to reveal all of her school photos to the world deserves to be recognized! But more than that, Keenie is a brave, adventurous blogger whose posts are always engaging, whether they are whimsical, poignant, or downright silly. Plus, we have a shared crush on both The Stig and Patrick Stewart, and there’s a possibility we were separated at birth.

Love & Hisses: I first found Robyn’s blog back in 1999 when it was called an ‘online diary’, which means she’s been writing for 12 years. That’s about 84 in blog years! She writes about everyday life with such humor and style, and I got sucked in immediately. She fosters kittens for Challenger’s House in Alabama and deserves recognition for the fantastic work she does taking care of all of those kittens, no matter what their issues may be. And she’s got some of the best cat pictures around!

Miss Darcy’s Library: Another PhD student, Florence writes some of the best book reviews I’ve seen, as well as observations about literature in general, and word histories. Whatever she is writing, though, it tells a wonderful story and never fails to make me think. She’s the bilingual I’ve always wanted to be, undoubtedly writing as beautifully in French as she does in English.

Words to Good Effect: Marion Dougan is a translator, working with Italian-English texts. I was reading language-focused blogs for a long time before I started writing more regularly on my own. Marion’s was one of the first I found; her posts are engaging, informative, and creative and I knew right away I had to keep coming back. Hers is deservedly once again one of Lexiophile’s Top 100 Language Lover blogs.

And that’s all she wrote. Go check out their sites and see for yourself how great these women are! And stay tuned…today’s regularly scheduled Bête Noire: Number Four is coming on Wednesday.

In the spirit of continued sharing, tell me what some of your favorite blogs are.

Thanks for the shoutout, limr! I can’t drive a manual transmission to save my life, but I do love the blues! I’m lactose-intolerant too, and should stop eating red meat, but haven’t managed to yet! I love bagels! My cousin and her husband are Gators fans (they live in Orlando). I’ll ignore your comment about our Maritime hockey star, Sidney Crosby (truthfully, I haven’t paid attention to hockey since the early 80’s – you might get a kick out of this post: http://writerwoman61.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/i-was-a-gretzky-groupie-happy-50th-wayne/). I’ve never had a broken bone, and usually get heartburn only when I’m pregnant (glad those days are over!).

I loved Wayne Gretzky, too! (that Janet girl was a bimbo, what was he thinking??) . He was incredible to watch on the ice! Crosby’s fine just as long as he stays with the Penguins :)

Love the blues. There used to be a local blues jam every Tuesday night at a great little bar that was just perfect for blues music – just enough dank y’know? Then they renovated and turned it into a catering hall for bridal showers and such. Horrible! The blues jam moved and I still go once in a while, but it’s just not the same.

Thank you so very much!! You’re such a great writer, and I’m honored that you would consider me for an award!:) I’m finally back from vacation. My cats are almost over being mad at us for being gone! I’m going to try to get a post of some kind out between doing mounds of laundry and grocery shopping!

Your 7 points are very interesting. I went 12 years without eating red meat, until my husband corrupted me with a grilled burger. I still limit my overall meat intake, but a grilled burger a few times a year is my weakness! Thanks again, so much!

I’m going to be away for two weeks starting on Friday and I know it’s silly, but I’m afraid that my Zelda and Mrs.Parker are going to be so mad at me! Mrs.Parker rolls with the punches pretty well, but little Zelda is a bit fragile. She’s the one who snuggles with me at night. Poor things.

My boyfriend is such a carnivore, and with his help, I’ve devised a test: if something is beyond delicious AND it’s unlikely I’ll ever have a chance to try it again, I’ll have a bite, but really not more than that. A few years ago, a Kobe steak passed the test, and I must say, it was super yummy delish! I can see how a burger is tempting, though I don’t think my stomach would be able to handle the entire thing at this point!

You are very very welcome. Like I said, we have something in common: we’ve both finally stopped ignoring the desire to write and we’re doing it, so that deserves credit! Not to mention I think you’ve got the chops :)

Thank you so much for the kind words! :)
Great facts. I’m with you on the transmission thing. I was brought up with manual, and I’m sticking to it.
Hm, you do have a point . Men want to be just irrisitible. I do know some girls who want that too, though.
And great to have a list of blogs to check out. :) Thanks for “playing along”!

My father insisted that I learned how to drive on a manual, and actually, the older the car the better. His philosophy was that if I could drive a difficult car, then I’d never have problems driving anything else. And he was pretty much right about that :)

Thank you so much for including me in your marvellous selection — I’m honoured! Mind you, I don’t think I deserve it at all. For one thing, I most definitely am not sweet. Perfectionist (in a bad way), hyper-critical and Virgo is more like it.
I’m now thinking furiously about my seven random facts. One we have in common is that we both miss “Europe”. I’m back in Scotland now but I do miss “the continent”. At the same time, like you, I sometimes feel so glad that I left (I lived in Italy for over 20 years). Unlike you, I’ve had broken (well, fractured) bones, surgery, stitches and hospital stays (two Cesaerians and a cyst that had to be removed surgically).
Thank you again!

My confession is that I’ve been thinking of the ‘sweet’ part in the way that people here in the NY area will say “Sweet!” when they’re excited – they see a really nice car or maybe the pizza delivery guy shows up. So I immediately thought of all the writing that made me say “Sweet!” :) And you definitely fit into that category! And congrats again on the Top 100!

Yup, “the continent” can be so charming and so infuriating, can’t it? I suppose any place is like that. It sure feels good when I get to go back and visit, though!

As much as I do not want a broken bone, part of me would view it as a badge of honor of sorts – well, as long as I broke it doing something exciting, and not just getting out of the shower or something ;)

A Gator, eh? I’m a Bulldog. Though, I don’t really follow football. Emmitt Smith? I follow him. At least I did, by watching Dancing with the Stars. (Please don’t judge.) This past season Hines Ward was on DWTS. He’s a Bulldog, too.

I’ve come to work with doughnuts, only to have my boss see me and say jokingly, “Why can you bring in some lasagna and Caesar salad?” She, like you, is not big on sweets.

Oh no, not a Bulldog! It’s okay, though…I have a feeling we can put those differences aside :) I have nothing against Dancing with the Stars, but I also never watch it, probably because I always forget about it. I wish I had seen Emmitt Smith dancing, though. Well, dancing with an actual partner and not skipping around the defense tucking a football.

I would definitely chose lasagne over doughnuts. I do get a little stereotypically chocolate-crazed when I’ve got what I term “the woman problems”, but otherwise, that lasagne’s days would be numbered. The lactose intolerance is sometimes the only thing that stops me from scarfing an obsene amount of cheese :)

Swoon – another car girl who only drives stick? I want to have your babies, Leo. I have never in my life owned a car with an automatic transmission and used to proudly carry my very own subscription to Car & Driver, until I realized the car lust that engendered was counter-productive to my desire to be fiscally responsible.

Except for that veggie thing and the lack of a sweet tooth, I’m still convinced you might be my long lost twin.

This is a very belated THANK YOU for your kind words… there is much afoot in Keenie Beanie-land and I am woefully behind with my online friends, but will prepare a post passing this award on as soon as possible. XOXO

Only once did I have to drive an automatic for any period of time (other than rentals, of course) but it was a hand-me-down for when I first got back to the States and needed to save money for my own car. When I bought Lucille, the salesman didn’t believe me at first when I told him that an automatic would be a deal-breaker. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a chick or because these days, even guys don’t want manual transmissions. Either way, he found out soon enough that I wasn’t budging on that!

And you know, some twins have opposite attributes, so I’m not discounting the possibility just yet…

You are more than welcome! I hope they are good changes that are afoot!